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12/30/07 - Factory waste produces enough energy for 750 Homes
Frank Angelo of Jonesboro, Arkansas was about to be fined $10,000 a day for burning 200 tons of bark, chips, sawdust, and shavings a week ... leftovers from the chicken coops that he manufactures. So, Angelo invented a 70-ton rotary furnace from an abandoned railroad car, an afterburner, and recycled conveyor belts and pipes. The furnace is now generating up to 20 million Btu's an hour ... enough energy to power 750 Jonesboro homes. A by-product of Frank's invention-activated carbon-is sold as a filter to remove cancer-causing agents from air and water. (The photo is not the original invention, but shows a typical modern day rotary furnace.) - Source
12/30/07 - Library Installs Robotic Book Storage System
The University of Utah's biggest library, called Marriott Library, has installed a $12 million ROBOTIC STORAGE SYSTEM. Instead of storing books on shelves accessible to humans, the system puts them in bins that are stacked 3 1/2 stories high. The benefit is that it enables the library to expand their collections without the construction costs of an entirely new building. The system holds 2 million books. - Source
12/30/07 - 5 Easy Ways to Lose Weight and Improve Your Health
Almost as soon as the Times Square ball drops and the confetti is thrown, many of us start making resolutions to improve our health and our lives. Then, within a few weeks, our resolve often fades -- and we go back to our old, bad habits. But what if, instead of trying to make sweeping changes, we resolved only to tackle a few easy ways to lose weight and boost health? The health and weight loss resolutions that stand the best chance of lasting are the ones that call for minor, doable changes, experts say. "The key is to take small, positive steps and move ahead consistently," says Penny Kris-Etherton, PhD, a nutrition professor at Penn State University. "People need to be realistic about the changes they can achieve." 1: Strap on a Pedometer / 2: Drink 2 Cups of Tea a Day / 3: Switch to Whole Grains / 4: Switch to Healthier Fats / 5: Cut Down on Sodium (Expanded details at the website) - Source12/30/07 - Alzheimer's disease can be prevented thanks to fish oil
Fish oil is recommended for a healthy diet because it contains the omega-3 fatty acids that reduce inflammation throughout the body.However, the preferred source of Omega 3 should be from the fish's body, not the liver. The liver and liver products (such as cod liver oil) of fish and many animals (such as seals and whales) contain Omega-3, but also the active form of vitamin A. At high levels, this form of the vitamin can be dangerous. Studies were conducted on prisoners in England where the inmates were fed seafood which contains Omega-3 Fatty acids. The higher consumption of these fatty acids led to a drop in the assault rates. Another Finnish study found that prisoners who were convicted of violence had lower levels of omega-3 fatty acids than prisoners convicted of nonviolent offenses. According to a study from Louisiana State University in September 2005, fish oil may help protect the brain from cognitive problems associated with Alzheimer's disease. It was proved by a group of researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). - Source
12/30/07 - USB Credit Card Launched In South Korea
A South Korean company called Shinhan Card unveiled yesterday a new kind of USB CREDIT CARD. The device functions as a contactless credit card at stores. In order to use it for online purchases, you just insert it into your PC's USB drive. It enters your credit card information for you. - Source
12/30/07 - Video Professor? or marketing trap?
For 20 years, John Scherer, otherwise known as the Video Professor, has advertised on cable TV the wonders of his educational software. "I am so confident that I'm going to give you one free disc," he says on his "limited time offer" advertisements. But in actuality, it appears impossible to just get one free disc. Instead, it is a packaged bundle of three discs that cost $6.95 for shipping and handling. If the customer doesn't return one of the discs, at their expense, within 10 days, they will be enrolled in an automatic renewal service which sends new three-disc bundles every month for $79.95. Not only that, but he seems like a real jerk: When ConsumerAffairs.Com asked Scherer why he uses the implied-consent subscription model, he said: "Now I'm supposed to conduct my business the way a lot of people ... want me to? Why don't you call Ford or General Motors and ask them why they do a certain sales program the way they do it." "You're not a marketing guy, I know that," Scherer continued. "I'll make a note that I should run my business according to you." And this: "Shortly before going on a live [TV] spot, a producer asked him to take calls from viewers. "I've got to tell you something," Scherer said he was forced to confess. "I don't know how to use a computer." - Source12/30/07 - Remedy Aches and Pains on the Cheap
Got a pressing headache? How about an aching sunburn? Prevention magazine asked seven experts for their home remedies to cure common health concerns. For example, if your teeth aren't as pearly white as you want them to be, combine 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda with 1 or 2 drops peroxide. Brush the solution onto your teeth and then rinse. Headaches can be relieved with do-it-yourself acupressure or by massaging a few drops of peppermint oil on your lower neck. For a charley horse, apply pressure to the middle of the calf for 30 seconds. The article lists an additional 14 home remedies that are cheap, fast, and will hopefully cure your aches. Surely, these are better options than going to the drugstore and taking over the counter medications-again. - Source12/30/07 - Holiday Humor - Fark Headline Contest
No site has better headlines than Fark. Now they're holding a Headline of the Year contest. It's in four parts, one for each quarter of the year: Round 1, Round 2, Round 3, and Round 4. Just a few examples: * Newspaper publisher complains that Americans can no longer express themselves without swearing. Can you believe that sh*t? * Palm Beach County prosecutor survives shark attack while surfing. Was let go due to professional courtesy * West Virginia governor appoints wife, son and cousin to powerful state positions. Surprisingly , that's three different people * Billy Graham's wife Ruth has left him to be with Jesus. Evangelist always suspected their gardener was up to no good * Bear attack victim had 'tender heart,' according to friends, family, bear * Man who beat his girlfriend with a flashlight charged with assault. Flashlight charged with battery * Old-school vinyl records are still hanging on to a...still hanging on to a...still hanging on to a...still hanging on to a * What do you do if you're a Chilean supermarket cashier and not allowed to take a bathroom break? Depends * Deaf-mute couple having trouble getting divorced. The paperwork was a cinch but the hearing didn't go so well * Gatorade inventor Dr. Robert Cade, 80, has died. Remains will be cremated, and then the ashes will be dumped over some coach's head - Source
12/30/07 - Pig Spleens Used to Forecast Weather
Paul Smokov, 84, raising cattle on a 1,750-acre ranch north of the town Steel, North Dakota, forecasts the weather by peering at two of brown, glistening, foot-long spleens on his kitchen counter. If the spleen is wide and then narrows, it means winter will come early with a mild spring; if it is narrow and then widens, it usually means harsh weather in the spring; if it is pretty uniform in thickness, it indicates no drastic changes, Smokov said. "The spleens are 85 percent correct, according to my figures, and those guys (the weathermen) aren't any better," the farmer said. Smokov's Ukrainian parents brought their knowledge of pig spleen forecasting with them when they went to the United States a century ago. "It's folklore and a dying art," said Janice Stillman, editor of the Old Farmer's Almanac in Dew Hampshire. - Source12/30/07 - Problem Solving - Tackle Any Issue With a List of 100
The List of 100 is a powerful technique you can use to generate ideas, clarify your thoughts, uncover hidden problems or get solutions to any specific questions you’re interested in. The technique is very simple in principle: state your issue or question in the top of a blank sheet of paper and come up with a list of one hundred answers or solutions about it. "100 Ways to Generate Income", "100 Ways to be More Creative" or "100 Ways to Improve my Relationships" are some examples. "One hundred entries? Isn't that way too many?" Bear with me: it's exactly this exaggeration that makes the technique powerful... - Source12/30/07 - $25M for your own Island
Katafanga Island in the South Pacific paradise of Fiji is available. Imagine the opportunities! 225 acres of unspoiled beauty for a very reasonable €25,000,000. / (Hmmm, how about a 225 acre country devoted to future and alternative science research and development?
There would be plenty of extra cost for equipping and support but there are people out there with that kind of money, though I've not met any...yet... And to get funding, setup a system like in the Peter Sellers' movie 'The Mouse that Roared', "A cold war satire emphasising the new emerged American Superpower's use of foreign aid to buy friends and keep then away from the USSR's influence. Peter Sellers, as the scheming Prime Minister of Grand Fenwick, plots with Peter Sellers, as the scheming Grand Duchess, to declare war on the USA, lose and get that foreign aid." - JWD) - Source
12/30/07 - Scrap detox diets, expert urges
The food watchdog's chief scientist has urged consumers to ditch detox diets and supplements. Drinking water, taking exercise and eating home-cooked food can all help tackle festive excess, according to Andrew Wadge, of the Food Standards Agency (FSA). In his online blog, the FSA's chief scientist says: "There's a lot of nonsense talked about 'detoxing' and most people seem to forget that we are born with a built-in detox mechanism. It's called the liver." - Source12/30/07 - Flying on Water
Scientists have developed the first completely autonomous seaplane. At only slightly bigger than a pelican, it's not going to set any lift records, but it definitely represents an interesting solution to yet another aviation problem. The aircraft is named Flying Fish after fish that pop out of the water and fly. That led to a study of sea birds, which led to the current Darpa-funded design. "We studied sea birds seriously," Meadows said. "They're all about the same size-about 20 pounds with a 2-meter wingspan. It turns out that, aerodynamically speaking, that's a sweet spot to be flying close to the water. Our plane is about the size of a large pelican." Flying Fish, an electric vehicle, drifts until its onboard Global Positioning System tells the craft it has floated too far. That triggers the takeoff sequence, which gets the plane airborne in just 10 meters. Other GPS coordinates trigger the landing sequence. The craft accomplishes both in simple ways, explained Ella Atkins, associate professor of aerospace engineering and associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science. - Source
12/28/07 - New hope for a cure to liver cirrhosis
Cirrhosis of the liver, an irreversible condition usually caused by heavy drinking, may be reversible after all. Experiments in mice show that the condition may be prevented - and the liver allowed to recover - if a protein activated by liver injury can be silenced. - Source12/28/07 - Wear tinfoil hats when using Adobe products
You're not the only one watching what you do in Adobe Creative Suite 3, the company's ubiquitous photo-and-design software package. Adobe is watching you, too. - Source12/28/07 - Brain Imaging Links Thinking Patterns to Addiction
In a study comparing brain activity of sober alcoholics and non-addicted people making financial decisions, the group of sober alcoholics showed significantly more "impulsive" neural activity. “Our data suggest there may be a cognitive difference in people with addictions,” Boettiger said. “Their brains may not fully process the long-term consequences of their choices. They may compute information less efficiently.” “What’s exciting about this study is that it suggests a new approach to therapy. We might prescribe medications, such as those used to treat Parkinson’s or early Alzheimer’s disease, or tailor cognitive therapy to improve executive function” she added. - Source12/28/07 - Nuclear Waste Could Power Britain
A plan by the nuclear industry to build a £1bn fuel processing plant at Sellafield is being backed by the government's chief scientist. The plant would turn the UK's 60,000 tonnes of high-level nuclear waste into reactor fuel that will provide 60 per cent of this country's electricity until 2060, it is claimed. 'We can bury our reactor waste or we can treat it and then use it as free fuel for life,' said the cabinet's chief science adviser, Sir David King. 'It's a no-brainer.' To make nuclear fuel from this waste, its plutonium and uranium would have to be extracted, a task that can be achieved using Sellafield's Thorp reprocessing plant, though it will require a £1bn refurbishment to achieve this, said King. Alternatively, a new reprocessing plant will have to be built. Then the plutonium and uranium will have to be turned into a fuel called mox, or mixed oxide. A plant to make mox could cost a further £1bn, or Sellafield's existing mox plant could be refurbished at a similar cost. Once these two plants - Thorp and mox - are ready, the 60,000 tonnes of nuclear waste, the leftovers of fuel production work and other highly radioactive material that has accumulated from Britain's nuclear energy programme, could be processed. The resulting fuel rods and pellets could then be burned in nuclear reactors over the next few decades. In turn, the waste could be burned in a new generation of power plants called fast breeder reactors. - Source
12/28/07 - Soaring toll of patients hit by drug side-effects
Last year, 4,635 people were taken to hospital suffering adverse reactions from medicines they had been prescribed - up from 4,429 in 2004. And 964 people died from drug side-effects last year, compared to 861 in 2004. - Source12/28/07 - GOP caging Democrats from pollbook
Earlier today Kris Kobach, chairman of the Kansas GOP, sent out a self-congratulatory litany of accomplishments. Among them was one particularly eye-catching item: "To date, the Kansas GOP has identified and caged more voters in the last 11 months than the previous two years!" Caging is a particularly devious and underhanded method of purging likely Democratic voters from the pollbooks. It's also illegal. - Source12/28/07 - Book Argues That Bell Stole Phone Idea
A new book claims to have definitive evidence of a long-suspected technological crime - that Alexander Graham Bell stole ideas for the telephone from a rival, Elisha Gray. In "The Telephone Gambit: Chasing Alexander Graham Bell's Secret," journalist Seth Shulman argues that Bell - aided by aggressive lawyers and a corrupt patent examiner - got an improper peek at patent documents Gray had filed, and that Bell was erroneously credited with filing first. Shulman believes the smoking gun is Bell's lab notebook, which was restricted by Bell's family until 1976, then digitized and made widely available in 1999. The notebook details the false starts Bell encountered as he and assistant Thomas Watson tried transmitting sound electromagnetically over a wire. Then, after a 12-day gap in 1876 - when Bell went to Washington to sort out patent questions about his work - he suddenly began trying another kind of voice transmitter. That method was the one that proved successful. - Source
12/28/07 - The last great land rush is at the bottom of the ocean
Never before has the world's attention been so fixed on the deep ocean. Inflated oil, mineral, and gas prices, coupled with collapsing global fisheries, are pushing industries into remote seas once too expensive to tap. Pressing concerns about global warming are bringing scientists to explore uncharted depths - both to understand how they influence climate and to take the pulse of abyssal life before human impact irrevocably transforms it. At a time when still so little is known about the ocean's very nature, it has suddenly become a place of extraordinary geopolitical, economic, and scientific value. - Source12/28/07 - Worms infect more poor Americans than thought
Roundworms may infect close to a quarter of inner city black children, tapeworms are the leading cause of seizures among U.S. Hispanics and other parasitic diseases associated with poor countries are also affecting Americans, a U.S. expert said on Tuesday. Recent studies show many of the poorest Americans living in the United States carry some of the same parasitic infections that affect the poor in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, said Dr. Peter Hotez, a tropical disease expert at George Washington University and editor-in-chief of the Public Library of Science journal PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases. - Source
12/28/07 - Clean Diesel Cars Greener Than Hybrids
Most Americans have a bad impression of diesel cars. We think of them as loud, hard to start and foul-smelling. We sneer at them for lacking the get-up-and-go of their gasoline-powered cousins. And we dislike them for their perceived environmental sins, chiefly the polluting brew of sulfur and nitrogen compounds that they emit into the atmosphere. All those complaints were fair a generation ago, when the twin energy crises of the 1970s propelled diesels into national popularity and kept them there for a decade. Today, diesel powertrains are on the map again, for both car manufacturers and efficiency-minded drivers. The technology could be here to stay, even if fuel prices (improbably) decline. The new cars run as well as their gasoline-powered competitors. And as for the emissions problems of the past-well, the dirty bird of fossil fuels isn’t so dirty anymore. - Source12/26/07 - New method enables scientists to see smells
Animals and insects communicate through an invisible world of scents. By exploiting infrared technology, researchers at Rockefeller University just made that world visible. “We needed to create an environment in which we knew something about the spatial arrangement of the odors,” says Vosshall. “We needed to see the smells.” In collaboration with colleagues in Thomas P. Sakmar’s Laboratory of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, the researchers used a novel spectroscopic technique that exploited infrared light to create environments where they could see, control and precisely quantify the distribution of these smells. - Source12/26/07 - Synthetic fuel recipe mixes reclaimed CO2, water, sunlight
Sandia National Laboratories is building such a fuel synthesizer in a bid to harnesses sunlight to reverse the process of combustion. The reactor would use reclaimed carbon dioxide emissions to create renewable synthetic fuel by combining the CO2 with water. "Rather than make hydrogen for people to use in fuel cells, we think it might make more sense to make a synthetic fuel that is already compatible with our existing [gasoline engine] infrastructure," said Rich Diver, inventor of the Counter Rotating Ring Receiver Reactor Recuperator (CR5). "Others are working on ways to make liquid synthetic fuels from natural gas, but we are going back a step further and looking at ways of thermochemically making the precursors for synthetic fuel using solar energy, carbon dioxide and water." Unbelievable as it sounds, Diver claims that his solar-powered reactor could help clean up the planet by making internal combustion a reversible process. His team calls the project Sunshine to Petrol (S2P) and the envisioned synthesized product Liquid Solar Fuel. "One way to look at it is as reverse combustion-taking heat from the sun, adding it to carbon dioxide and water, and making a synthetic fuel from them," said Diver. "We were originally just looking at ways of using solar energy to make hydrogen from water, but some of the same principles can be used to upgrade carbon dioxide to carbon monoxide. And with the right combination of carbon monoxide and hydrogen, you can make synthetic liquid fuel." - Source12/26/07 - Young inventors test energy saving engine
A young couple from Patna have invented an energy-saving engine, at a cost of Rs 35,000, which can run without petrol or diesel and can last for a 4.5-lakh kilometre run. Kanishk and Lipika Sinha are a wife-husband team of inventors of the fuel-free engine that they invented some three years ago. Kanishk Sinha recently got the engine patented (1077/Del/2005) with BigPatents India, a body supported by the Ford Foundation. The duo today carried out a demonstration by running a bicycle with the engine. Though the mechanic who ran it seemed tad afraid of its speed at first, later he managed an effective demonstration. “The vehicle made to run without conventional form of fuel is based on the law of interconvertible energy which states that total energy in an isolated system is conserved and can neither be created nor destroyed. “The motor created by us has a power range of 40-50MW, good enough to meet the needs of a four-wheeler,” explained Lipika. The inventors added that an engine would cost Rs 35,000 and can be refilled for Rs 10,000. Any four-wheeler could be fitted with the eco-friendly fuel-free engine. Though both claimed that there are thin chances of an engine breakdown, the husband-wife team have taken it upon themselves to train engineers and mechanics and place the engines in towns across Bihar and Bengal. “We received a proposal from Tata Motors stating that they would like to give our invention a brand name and its service centres,” said Kanishk. The engine has no exhaust pipes and thus it is pollution free. “Another strong feature is its suitability. It can bear the rough, tough and bumpy Bihar roads,” said the young man enthusiastically. - Source / THE ECO FRIENDLY VEHICLE/ ENGINE - Application 1077/DEL/2005 published 2005-06-03, filed 2005-05-02 - The vehicle made to run without conventional form of fuel that we use today, i.e. petrol or diesel. It is based on the law of interconvertible energy i.e. total energy in an isolated system is conserved. In this system energy can neither be created nor destroyed. This production of electricity is actually inter conversion of mechanical energy into the desirable form of utilizable energy needed to run the vehicle. The power range of the motor that is i.e. 40-50MW is expected to meet the (simulated energy) needs of the vehicle. - Big Indian patent / The engine can run for a 4.5 km lakh run. Lakh = 100,000 so that would be 450,000 km which is 280,000 miles between refills that cost $255 so that would be 1,098 miles for $1 of fuel.
12/26/07 - Israeli nanotech invention provides green electricity
Barry Breen uses little nano-sized cells, coated with an organic dye engineered to react when hit by sunlight to produce energy more efficiently, effectively, and cheaply, than current solar systems. The system includes cells consisting of titanium oxide layers coated with the organic dye and connected to a battery. The key is in the nano-sized chunks of titanium oxide. "At sizes as small as 10 nanometers, the laws of physics take some interesting turns," says Breen. "We have discovered that when light hits titanium oxide particles of this size coated with our dye, a great deal of energy is produced. It's like photosynthesis. Just as a plant produces nourishment for itself when exposed to sunlight, our cells produce energy, converted to electricity." The energy produced by the reaction is shunted into a charge controller, and then transferred to a battery, where it is stored. Orionsolar's system, he says, is more efficient, since the dye technology can be used even under low lighting situations, guaranteeing a greater power yield as it continues to gather energy even during the early morning or late afternoon hours. And Orionsolar's dye cell system produces power much more cheaply; module production costs are about half that of silicon photovoltaics, while the cost to put up a manufacturing line is a small fraction of those of silicon based photovoltaic systems, he adds. Orionsolar's systems, which should be commercially available within a year, will be manufactured in Israel, with almost all production geared for the company's Third World electrification project, Breen says. However, he says, the company will be happy to sell to anyone. - Source12/26/07 - Egypt to Copyright Pyramids and Sphynx
"We all know the usual pro-copyright arguments. Most of them hinge on the fact that the individual or company that has a copyright needs an incentive to make something that is copyrightable, and therefore ensure a revenue stream in a period after the copyright has been granted. In a never-surpassed move, Egypt is working on legislation to extend copyright well above 3000 years - they are going to start claiming royalties for using likenesses of the Sphynx and the Pyramids. It is still unclear whether the original intent of the Pyramids included 'making sure them bastards pay for a plastic copy in 3000 years' alongside 'securing a pathway to the heavens for the God King.' Speaking as a Greenlandic national, I want dibs on ice cubes." - Source12/26/07 - Kid uses mousetrap to catch money-thief
Harry Cordaiy, an 11-year-old Australian boy, was tired of thieves stealing his and other students' lunch money and bus tickets from classrooms. The school administrators weren't doing anything about it, so he rigged up a mousetrap coated with green food coloring, attached a $5 bill to it, stashed it in his backpack, and waited. He had squirted the device's main bar and metal fittings with green food colouring, cutting a small hole in the note and securing it on the bait hook with sticky tape, so that the thief would have to wrestle with it, thereby setting off the spring and getting hit with the coloured bar. To his surprise, the thieves took the bait and - after he spread the word among classmates - a witch-hunt began. "I thought 'Oh my God, I might catch these guys'," Harry said. "Everybody was running around seeing who had green on their fingers." One of the offenders was caught green-handed en route to the bathroom in a desperate bid to wash off the evidence. The younger boy confessed his guilt. An accomplice in the same year was also nabbed. / (I loved the ingenuity of this kid when school officials wouldn't do anything about it. - JWD) (via boingboing.net) - Source12/26/07 - Free Downloadable Flash Games
Right Click and "Save As" to your computer... These games are "standalone" - they run as programs... Remember where you put them! All have been thoroughly virus checked. - Source / (I received an email saying, "We followed one of the source links - 12/26/07 Free Downloadable Flash Games - and started to run one of the games offered. Then our virus scan software, McAfee 8.0, came into action warning us that a Trojan was hidden in the executable. That saved the day and triggered us to send this e-mail." They didn't say which game caused the alarm, so I downloaded them all, burned them to a CD and ran an AVG virus scan on the CD with no errors. Some antivirus software gives false detects on .EXE programs. I ran several of the games and didn't experience any problems, plus last night I scanned my entire drive using Spysweeper and AVG with nothing detected. Waiting for an email for which game cause the error. - JWD)12/26/07 - Illegal immigrants "self deport" as woes mount
A growing number of illegal immigrants across the United States who are starting to pack their bags and move on as a crackdown on undocumented immigrants widens and the U.S. economy slows, turning a traditional Christmas trek home into a one-way trip. In the past year, U.S. immigration police have stepped up workplace sweeps across the country and teamed up with a growing number of local forces to train officers to enforce immigration laws. Meanwhile, a bill seeking to offer many of the 12 million illegal immigrants a path to legal status was tossed by the U.S. Congress, spurring many state and local authorities to pass their own measures targeting illegal immigrants. The toughening environment has been coupled with a turndown in the U.S. economy, which has tipped the balance toward self deportation for many illegal immigrants left struggling to find work. While some illegal immigrants are simply self deporting, others are moving within the United States to avoid federal immigration raids and pro-enforcement measures passed by a patchwork of state and local authorities. "Everyone lives in fear of the police stopping you for some minor infraction and then asking for your papers," Gutierrez said as he touted for work in the chill morning air at a Phoenix day labor site. "I want to get as far away from here as possible." - Source12/26/07 - Crisis may make 1929 look a 'walk in the park'
As the credit paralysis stretches through its fifth month, a chorus of economists has begun to warn that the world's central banks are fighting the wrong war, and perhaps risk a policy error of epochal proportions. York professor Peter Spencer, chief economist for the ITEM Club, says the global authorities have just weeks to get this right, or trigger disaster. "The central banks are rapidly losing control. By not cutting interest rates nearly far enough or fast enough, they are allowing the money markets to dictate policy. We are long past worrying about moral hazard," he says. "They still have another couple of months before this starts imploding. Things are very unstable and can move incredibly fast. I don't think the central banks are going to make a major policy error, but if they do, this could make 1929 look like a walk in the park," he adds. Quietly, insiders are perusing an obscure paper by Fed staffers David Small and Jim Clouse. It explores what can be done under the Federal Reserve Act when all else fails. Section 13 (3) allows the Fed to take emergency action when banks become "unwilling or very reluctant to provide credit". A vote by five governors can - in "exigent circumstances" - authorise the bank to lend money to anybody, and take upon itself the credit risk. This clause has not been evoked since the Slump. - Source12/24/07 - Introducing the Solar Tree
The solar trees went on display for four weeks in October on a busy street - the Ringstrasse - in Vienna, Austria. They were able to provide enough light during the night-time even when the sun did not show for as much as four days in a row. The solar cells on the tree were able to store enough electricity in spite of receiving no direct solar light for days at a time because of the clouds. They showed that solar trees really are a practical form of street lighting. Putting solar powered LED light systems on trees would cut down on the carbon emissions and also slash the bills of local authorities. Street lighting consumed 10 percent of all the electricity used in Europe in 2006 or 2,000 billion KWh, and resulted in carbon emissions of 2,900 million ton. The use of more energy-efficient lighting in the Austrian city of Graz, with a population of almost 300,000 saved the city 524,000 KWh of electricity and 67,200 euros [US $96,800] in 2005. The branches of the solar tree were decorated with 10 solar lamps, each one comprising 36 solar cells; they also had rechargeable batteries and electronic systems. A sensor was used to measure the amount of light in the atmosphere and trigger the solar lamps to go on automatically at sunset and off at sunrise. - Source
12/24/07 - Mankind needs to make artificial life to survive
The future of life on Earth depends on creating synthetic organisms to cut greenhouse gases, according to the leading American scientist who is poised to create the world's first man-made species. Craig Venter, who made headlines around the world when he cracked the human genetic code, or genome, in 2000, wants to create designer bugs to manufacture hydrogen and biofuels, as well as to absorb carbon dioxide and other harmful greenhouse gases. He envisions "thousands of bio-refineries distributed around the country" creating clean fuel from silos filled with artificially created bacteria. Artificial life created through the science of synthetic genomics could be harnessed to create much more besides. "Plastics, carpets, clothing, medicines and motor oil - all of these things can be created by biological organisms". - Source12/24/07 - Chicken fat to Biodiesel
Chemical engineering researchers at the University of Arkansas have investigated supercritical methanol as a method of converting chicken fat into biodiesel fuel. The new study also successfully converted tall oil fatty acid into biodiesel at a yield of greater than 90 percent, significantly advancing efforts to develop commercially viable fuel out of plentiful, accessible and low-cost feedstocks and other agricultural by-products. - Source12/24/07 - Detecting Cattle Disease Before Physical Signs Appear
Thanks to research taking place at K-State's Beef Stocker Unit, modern-day cowboys could soon be using a bit of old-fashioned science to fight disease in the feedlot. A K-State professor of animal sciences and industry, is researching the effectiveness of a new radio-frequency identification ear tag that takes the animal's temperature. Elevated temperature is thought to be a precursor to the onset of disease. - Source12/24/07 - Mojo Working - Don't lug your laptop around - December 2007, Week 5
Mojo is an old African term for a talisman with magic powers. Now it's digital. This digital Mojo lets you put any program onto any hard drive, flash or otherwise, and then run that program on any Windows XP computer anywhere you happen to be. Attaching your Mojo-enhanced drive to that PC makes it come up with your own familiar desktop screen and all your familiar programs. Beats lugging your laptop. We first came across it recently as part of StealthSurfer, a $179 flash drive that lets you surf the Web, well, stealthily. But we can beat the devil out of that price,Stealth Surfer because Mojo is free from MojoPac.com, and we can load it onto any drive. Since the StealthSurfer is a 2GB flash drive, and we can buy 2GB flash drives for $20, we just saved enough for lunch in London. - Source12/24/07 - Hack Yourself
Self-examination can be paralysis. Don't “remember to breathe” - just breathe. It's a Tao thing. It's the paradox at the center of all this - remember that, “Am I living up to being the person I want to be?”, is not a question the person you want to be would ask. If I can leave you with just one thought, it's this: Stop wasting your time fretting over not being happy. Just be happy. (via lifehacker.com) - Source12/24/07 - Ron Paul DVD 60,000 copies sold in 72 hours (Watch the Video)
One day after Ron Paul grass roots supporters made political history by raising over 6 million dollars in a single day, the One day after Ron Paul grass roots supporters made political history by raising over 6 million dollars in a single day, the RonPaulReveres.com website released a new Ron Paul Canvassing DVD, selling over 60,000 copies in the first 72 hours. The DVD, also available for free online, introduces prospective supporters to presidential candidate Ron Paul's philosophy and key positions.website released a new Ron Paul Canvassing DVD, selling over 60,000 copies in the first 72 hours. The DVD, also available for free online, introduces prospective supporters to presidential candidate Ron Paul's philosophy and key positions. / FORCE him past the parties and electoral college, WRITE IN RON PAUL FOR PRESIDENT! - Source
12/24/07 - Cancer from what you Eat
The American Institute for Cancer Research and the World Cancer Research Fund recommend: * Maintaining a healthy body mass index of 18.5 to 24.9 (compute your BMI here) * Limiting consumption of red meat to no more than 18 ounces (cooked) a week * Eliminating processed meats such as bacon, ham, sausage and lunch meat (more on this point below) * Eating five servings or more of fruit and vegetables a day * Limiting consumption of alcohol to no more than two drinks a day for men and one for women * Exercising at least 30 minutes a day * Limiting consumption of salt * Limiting processed foods high in added sugar and fat - Source12/24/07 - Drilling Up' Into Space for Energy
While great nations fretted over coal, oil and global warming, one of the smallest at the U.N. climate conference was looking toward the heavens for its energy. The annual meeting's corridors can be a sounding board for unlikely 'solutions' to climate change _ from filling the skies with soot to block the sun, to cultivating oceans of seaweed to absorb the atmosphere's heat-trapping carbon dioxide. Unlike other ideas, however, one this year had an influential backer, the Pentagon, which is investigating whether space-based solar power _ beaming energy down from satellites _ will provide 'affordable, clean, safe, reliable, sustainable and expandable energy for mankind.' - Source12/24/07 - Syphilis makes grand return to Europe
In Britain syphilis cases have increased almost ten times during the recent ten years. There were 3,702 cases registered there in 2006. In Germany the statistics is alarming too: the rate among men was fewer than two per 100,000 in 1991; by 2003, it was six per 100,000. In France, there were 428 cases in 2003 - almost 16 times the number just three years earlier. In the Netherlands, cases doubled from 2000 to 2004. In Amsterdam, up to 31 men per 100,000 were infected, while the rate was much lower in other regions. Similar trends have been observed in the USA too. The disease was extremely rare in the United States in 2000. Six years later the situation changed when 9,800 people were diagnosed with syphilis. Many doctors were puzzled about the return of syphilis; some of them had trouble diagnosing it. Though these days it mainly affects urban gay men, experts worry that the disease could also rebound in the general population if stronger efforts to fight it are not taken soon. - Source12/24/07 - A Drink a Day Might Keep a Cold Away
Drinking. Two large studies have found that although moderate drinking will not cure colds, it can help keep them at bay, reports The New York Times. One, by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University in 1993, looked at 391 adults and found that resistance to colds increased with moderate drinking, except in smokers. - Source
12/24/07 - Fuel from Waste
Two companies, Diversified Energy and Velocys, are working together on a portable system that converts coal, natural gas, and biomass into diesel and jet fuel. The military could use the system to convert waste created at military bases--food scraps, paper, wood--into a fuel for military jets and vehicles. The system has two main parts: a gasifier and a fuel reactor. Diversified Energy, an energy company based in Gilbert, AZ, will make the gasifier that converts any carbon-containing material into a mix of carbon monoxide and hydrogen, known as synthesis gas, or syngas. The fuel synthesizer made by Velocys, based in Plain City, OH, will convert the syngas into a hydrocarbon liquid fuel. The transportation of fuel to bases accounts for 70 percent of military trucks and convoys that are on the road in Iraq and Afghanistan. At the same time, the military has to truck out waste from bases to dispose of it. Portability is the key aspect of the waste-to-fuel system. Erik Kallio, power and energy technology team leader at the army's research and engineering center, says that the system will have to be scalable to different sizes, making daily anywhere from about 2,100 to 21,000 gallons of fuel, while weighing between 150 and 1,500 tons, respectively. The system should also be able to make fuel from various feedstocks, including coal and natural gas. - Source12/22/07 - 57 mpg? That's so 20 years ago
Looking back at the 1987 Honda Civic CRX shows us why cars use so much more gas today and about the trade-offs we've had to make. The CRX HF got an Environmental Protection Agency-estimated 57 mpg gallon in highway driving. Today, the most fuel-efficient non-hybrid Civic you can buy gets an EPA-estimated 34 mpg on the highway. Even today's Honda Civic Hybrid can't match it, achieving EPA-estimated highway mileage of just 45 mpg. The Toyota Prius, today's fuel mileage champ, gets 46 mpg on the highway. Why then, not now? One answer for the mileage drop is that the rating system has changed. Beginning with the 2008 model year, the EPA began using a more rigorous fuel economy test that means lower numbers for most cars. But that's only a small part of the answer. If the old CRX HF were tested using today's rules, its highway fuel economy would drop to 51 mpg, according to the EPA's calculations. That's still much better than any mass-market car sold today, including hybrid cars. The bigger answer is that the Honda Civic has changed a lot in twenty years. Honda no longer sells a tiny two-seat version like the CRX. Even Civics with back seats are much bigger and heavier today than similar versions were in 1987. - Source
12/22/07 - The Library of Congress in your wrist watch?
As reported in the latest issue of Technology Review, Khizroev is leading a team exploring lasers so tiny that they point to a future where a 10-terabit hard drive is only one-inch square. That is 50 times the data density of today’s magnetic storage technology, a technology that has nearly reached its limit for continued miniaturization. Khizroev, an associate professor of engineering at UCR, and colleagues at the University of Houston led by Professor Dmitri Litvinov, have for the first time achieved a nanolaser which can concentrate light as small as 30 nanometers. For many substances, that is the molecular level. Just as importantly, their nanolaser can focus 250 nanowatts of power, enough to assure effective storage of the information. The next goal of the researchers is to refine the nanolaser to produce light beams as small as five or 10 nanometers. Khizroev said there are a number of challenges for getting the tiny disk drives to the market, including lubricating tiny parts and integrating the nanolaser with a recording head. Still, he insisted, the 10-terabit hard drive will be a near-term innovation, appearing in as little as two years. The implications of the ability to focus light at these scales are even more fantastic in the longer term. The use of photochromic proteins with nanolasers should help lead to nanocomputers and the ability to store still more data in smaller places, Khizroev said. Those proteins paired with nanolasers should also impact energy harvesting and a wide range of medical applications, he added. - Source12/22/07 - Laser Spark Plug
Vienna physicist Johannes Tauer has revolutionized a 100-year old system: in future, laser light could be used instead of electric spark plugs to ignite gas and petrol engines. As part of his thesis, Tauer developed a prototype of a laser spark plug that can be used to improve the performance of engines and at the same time reduce fuel consumption and emissions. "The idea of igniting a flammable mixture with a laser isn’t new," says the Austrian, "It was put forward just a few years after the first experimental demonstration of a laser in 1960," he continues. Past projects mostly failed due to the end-product's lack of suitability for everyday use: The spark plugs were too large for use in an engine, they did not provide enough energy, or they were not robust enough to function consistently in spite of the high level of heat and constant vibration. Tauer's working group has been working on this problem for more than eight years, and in 2005 he himself was commissioned with the task of developing a suitable ignition laser. No simple task for a physics student whose previous lectures only marginally covered laser systems. Tauer therefore spent the summer before his admission to the research group studying the relevant literature. He never had any doubts that his thesis would not deliver the desired results: "We knew that it had to work. My colleagues had done such good preparatory work", says Tauer. Moreover he was given sound support. "My supervisor and I complemented each other very well the whole way through. The things I had difficulties with, he could master, and vice versa," says Tauer, describing their successful collaboration. Together Tauer and Kofler developed a laser ignition that, in comparison to predecessor models, met all the requirements for an everyday system. How it works is best explained by the researcher himself: "The principle of laser ignition is to strongly focus a pulsed laser beam using suitable optical lenses within a highly combustible mixture, with the focus able to be placed on any point of ignition. At the point of ignition a plasma is created that is hot enough to ignite the fuel, but far enough from any cooling metallic surfaces." To fulfil the increasingly urgent requirements placed on engines for higher fuel efficiency and lower emissions, car manufacturers must, among other things, increase the mean pressure in the engine. With conventional spark plugs, however, this increases the ignition voltage, which in turn can lead to electrode erosion and ultimately to spark plug failure. The advantage of Tauer's system is that a laser spark plug has no electrodes and is therefore also compatible with even the highest engine pressures. In addition, a laser ignition can also be used to ignite much more meagre mixtures, because more air is involved in the combustion process than is actually necessary. This leads to a slight increase in efficiency, but much more importantly to the currently so coveted reduction in fuel consumption and nitrogen emissions. Another advantage is the choice of virtually any laser focus. "With conventional spark plugs, the spark is located right next to the electrodes, causing losses," explains Tauer. A laser pulse on the other hand, can be precisely focused on the ideal ignition point in the cylinder, thereby ensuring optimum combustion efficiency and power generation. This again saves fuel and reduces emissions. - Source
12/22/07 - The Marvelous Chicken-powered Motorcar
Harold Bate, chicken farmer and inventor from Devonshire, England says that you can power your motor vehicles with droppings from chickens, pigs or any other animal of your choice . . . even with your own waste! To prove his statement is no idle boast, Harold has been operating a 1953 Hillman and a, five-ton truck on methane gas generated by decomposing pig and chicken manure for years. He claims that the equivalent of a gallon of high-test gasoline costs him only about 3¢ and that the low-cost methane makes his vehicles run faster, cleaner and better than they operate on "store bought" fuel. Mr. Bate stands beside his famous Hillman. (Photos: Hillman modified Car. RIGHT: We find, secured by another twist of wire, the pressure tank of methane which fuels the Bate Hillman. In this case, the tank is a recycled ""camping gas"" bottle of a type common in England. Middle: The patented Bate Auto Gas Converter with all frills removed. This important piece of hardware and instructions for setting up your own methane plant is what you receive when you buy a converter from Bate. Lower Middle: There are days when being a world-famous chicken farmer-inventor is a royal drag. - Source
12/22/07 - The Post-Oil Economy: After The Techno-Fix
The path beyond petroleum begins by considering five principles: that alternative sources of energy are insufficient; that hydrocarbons, metals, and electricity are inseparable; that advanced technology is part of the problem, not part of the solution; that post-oil agriculture means a smaller population; and that the basis of the problem is psychological, not technological. Everything in modern industrial society is dependent on oil and other hydrocarbons. From these we get gasoline, heating fuel, fertilizer, pesticides, lubricants, plastic, paint, synthetic fabrics, asphalt, pharmaceuticals, and many other things. Speaking in more general terms, we can say that we are dependent on hydrocarbons for manufacture, for transportation, for agriculture, for mining, and for electricity. - Source12/22/07 - V-shaped solar cells could lead to better efficiency
Organic solar have an active layer made out of molecules, such as pigments or polymers. They are low-cost and flexible. However, as Peumans points out, “organic solar cells typically have low efficiencies.” A traditionally designed organic solar cell consists of a film layer of the light absorbing material spread on top of some sort of substrate. The Stanford team found that if they took a traditionally designed solar cell and then bent it to form a v-shape, it was possible to significantly increase the efficiency of the cell. “It’s about light management,” Peumans says. “This is a pretty simple solution.” Peumans goes on to explain that most organic solar cells are made on planar substrates. “When the light hits it, there is only one bounce - only once chance for the light to be absorbed.” The v-shape, he continues, creates an environment in which the light can bounce around. “Every time the light bounces, it has a chance to be absorbed into the cell.” - Source12/22/07 - Bamboo road bridge can support 16-tonne trucks
Bridges built from bamboo instead of steel could provide a cheaper, more environmentally sustainable engineering solution in China, a recent experiment suggests. A novel type of bridge with horizontal beams made from a bamboo composite proved strong enough to support even heavy trucks in tests. The bamboo beams are cheaper and more environmentally friendly to make than steel or concrete, yet offer comparable structural strength. Instead of using round, pole-like pieces of unprocessed bamboo, which have been used as building material for many thousands of years, he came up with a way of assembling timber-like beams from many smaller strips of bamboo. Precise details on the process remain proprietary, but Xiao says the strips are cut from large stalks of bamboo, arranged in multiple layers, and bonded together with glue. The technique has never been used to build such large beams before, Xiao says. - Source
12/22/07 - New 'Lobster Vision' Cam Sees Through Walls
A Torrance, California, company called Physical Optics Corporation is working on a camera based on lobster eyes that can see through walls. Called LEXID (Lobster-Eye X-ray Inspection Device). The LEXID can see through wood, concrete and even steel by beaming X-rays, then focusing on the reflection (rather than refraction) of objects -- which is how lobsters see through murky waters. The LEXID should be available for purchase by the Department of Homeland Security and other government agencies. (via therawfeed.com) - Source
12/22/07 - Blurry X-rays become clear with new software
Software that creates high-quality images by combining several blurry ones could lead to safer X-rays and digital cameras that automatically sharpen up snapshots. The software uses a number of low-resolution images to produce a single high resolution one - a technique known as "super-resolution". Forensic scientists and astronomers already use super-resolution to produce clearer images from blurred security and astronomical images. US researchers have now adapted the approach to produce usable X-ray images with less radiation. Meanwhile researchers in the UK have improved the algorithms behind the technique, perhaps paving the way for super-resolution consumer cameras. 15 images made with low doses of X-ray radiation and applied super-resolution to turn them into a single picture with four times better resolution than any of the originals. To produce the same quality image would normally mean using a third more radiation than the combined dose of all 15 low-resolution exposures. - Source12/22/07 - Many Analog TV Watchers Aren't Aware of Upcoming Switchover
A recent poll of TV watchers shows that many Americans aren't aware the end times are coming for analog broadcast signals. "The survey found that the group most affected by the analog cutoff -- those with no cable or satellite service -- are most in the dark about what will happen to their sets: Only one-third of them had heard that their TVs are set to stop receiving programs. Of course, there are solutions. Congress is subsidizing the purchase of digital television receivers. And the cable TV industry is hoping that this will spur the last holdouts to buy pay TV." - Source
12/22/07 - Hugh's List of Bush Scandals
A progressive named Hugh started making a list of Bush scandals late last summer...Initially, the list entries were very brief...But Hugh edited each entry by adding enough information so that even a mainstream media reporter would understand what event or action the entry implied or recognized...Most are breaches of the public trust, many violations of Bush's Oath of Office... (source; with images of list unfurled as a 60-foot scroll) - Source
12/22/07 - Nanowire battery holds 10 times the charge of existing ones
Stanford researchers have found a way to use silicon nanowires to reinvent the rechargeable lithium-ion batteries that power laptops, iPods, video cameras, cell phones, and countless other devices. The new version, developed through research led by Yi Cui, assistant professor of materials science and engineering, produces 10 times the amount of electricity of existing lithium-ion, known as Li-ion, batteries. A laptop that now runs on battery for two hours could operate for 20 hours, a boon to ocean-hopping business travelers. The greatly expanded storage capacity could make Li-ion batteries attractive to electric car manufacturers. Cui suggested that they could also be used in homes or offices to store electricity generated by rooftop solar panels. Silicon placed in a battery swells as it absorbs positively charged lithium atoms during charging, then shrinks during use (i.e., when playing your iPod) as the lithium is drawn out of the silicon. This expand/shrink cycle typically causes the silicon (often in the form of particles or a thin film) to pulverize, degrading the performance of the battery. Cui's battery gets around this problem with nanotechnology. The lithium is stored in a forest of tiny silicon nanowires, each with a diameter one-thousandth the thickness of a sheet of paper. The nanowires inflate four times their normal size as they soak up lithium. But, unlike other silicon shapes, they do not fracture. - Source
12/22/07 - Debunking medical myths
Physicians understand that practicing good medicine requires the constant acquisition of new knowledge, though they often assume their existing medical beliefs do not need re-examination. These medical myths are a light hearted reminder that we can be wrong and need to question what other falsehoods we unwittingly propagate as we practice medicine. We generated a list of common medical or medicine related beliefs espoused by physicians and the general public, based on statements we had heard endorsed on multiple occasions and thought were true or might be true. We selected seven for critical review: • People should drink at least eight glasses of water a day • We use only 10% of our brains • Hair and fingernails continue to grow after death • Shaving hair causes it to grow back faster, darker, or coarser • Reading in dim light ruins your eyesight • Eating turkey makes people especially drowsy • Mobile phones create considerable electromagnetic interference in hospitals. - Source12/22/07 - Time is running out - literally, says scientist
Scientists have come up with the radical suggestion that the universe's end may come not with a bang but a standstill - that time could be literally running out and could, one day, stop altogether. The team's proposal, which will be published in the journal Physical Review D, does away altogether with dark energy. Instead, Prof Senovilla says, the appearance of acceleration is caused by time itself gradually slowing down, like a clock that needs winding. The principle is the same as that of an ambulance siren which gets higher as it comes towards the listener but lower as it moves away. Similarly, a star moving away appears redder in colour than one moving towards us. However, he adds that the team is only assuming there is one dimension of time. Itzhak Bars of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles has put forward the bizarre suggestion that there are two dimensions of time, not the one that we are all familiar with. Prof Senovilla says: "One thing that is definitely not included in our models is the possibility of having more than one time dimension." - Source
12/22/07 - 20 Reasons to Abandon Christianity
Usually, in lists like this, a few items are bogus. But in this case, every item is valid. 1. Christianity is based on fear 2. Christianity preys on the innocent 3. Christianity is based on dishonesty 4. Christianity is extremely egocentric 5. Christianity breeds arrogance, a chosen-people mentality 6. Christianity breeds authoritarianism 7. Christianity is cruel 8. Christianity is anti-intellectual, anti-scientific 9. Christianity has a morbid, unhealthy preoccupation with sex 10. Christianity produces sexual misery 11. Christianity has an exceedingly narrow, legalistic view of morality 12. Christianity encourages acceptance of real evils while focusing on imaginary evils 13. Christianity depreciates the natural world 14. Christianity models hierarchical, authoritarian organization 15. Christianity sanctions slavery 16. Christianity is misogynistic 17. Christianity is homophobic 18. The Bible is not a reliable guide to Christ's teachings 19. The Bible is riddled with contradictions 20. Christianity borrowed its central myths and ceremonies from other ancient religions - Source12/20/07 - Toshiba Builds Ultra-Small Nuclear Reactor
"Toshiba has developed a new class of micro size Nuclear Reactors that is designed to power individual apartment buildings or city blocks. The new reactor, which is only 20 feet by 6 feet, could change everything for small remote communities, small businesses or even a group of neighbors who are fed up with the power companies and want more control over their energy needs." / The 200 kilowatt Toshiba designed reactor is engineered to be fail-safe and totally automatic and will not overheat. Unlike traditional nuclear reactors the new micro reactor uses no control rods to initiate the reaction. The new revolutionary technology uses reservoirs of liquid lithium-6, an isotope that is effective at absorbing neutrons. The Lithium-6 reservoirs are connected to a vertical tube that fits into the reactor core. The whole whole process is self sustaining and can last for up to 40 years, producing electricity for only 5 cents per kilowatt hour, about half the cost of grid energy. - Source12/20/07 - Nanofabrication Finds New Mineral Property
U.S. physicists have discovered a new electronic property in lodestone, also known as magnetite -- one of the most studied magnetic minerals on Earth. Led by Rice University Associate Professor Doug Natelson, the physicists found by changing the voltage in their experiment, they were able to reduce magnetite's temperatures lower than minus 250 degrees Fahrenheit. That resulted in the mineral reverting from an insulator to a conductor. It's fascinating that we can still find surprises in a material like magnetite that has been studied for thousands of years, Natelson said. This kind of finding is really a testament to what's possible now that we can fabricate electronic devices to study materials at the nanoscale. - Source
12/20/07 - Carbon electrodes could slash cost of solar panels
Transparent electrodes created from atom-thick carbon sheets could make solar cells and LCDs without depleting precious mineral resources, say researchers in Germany. Solar cells, LCDs, and some other devices, must have transparent electrodes in parts of their designs to let light in or out. These electrodes are usually made from indium tin oxide (ITO) but experts calculate that there is only 10 years' worth of indium left on the planet, with LCD panels consuming the majority of existing stocks. The group has managed to produce electrodes just 10 graphene layers thick, or roughly five nanometres. These have a transparency of about 80%, which is comparable to the indium-based electrodes normally used for dye sensitised cells. But, unlike these electrodes, graphene ones are completely transparent to infrared light, which could allow solar cells to collect more of the Sun's energy. - Source12/20/07 - Acupuncture relieves cancer chemotherapy fatigue
Crippling and long- lasting fatigue is one the most common side-effects of chemotherapy. The new work indicates that acupuncture can boost energy levels and radically improve a patient’s quality of life. Numerous trials have shown that acupuncture appears to work for a variety of conditions. Last year, two studies demonstrated that acupuncture may help boost fertility after IVF, although a third study failed to demonstrate an effect. The US National Institutes of Health says that acupuncture is an effective treatment for nausea caused by anaesthesia and cancer chemotherapy, as well as dental pain following surgery. - Source
12/20/07 - Making an invention idea a reality can be a hard road
Bob Wise, president of the Texas Inventors’ Association, says only one in 10 inventions that receive a patent make significant money. And no more than a third of the inventions that come through the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office are given a patent, he said. Getting to that point can cost amateur inventors up to $11,000. “I have yet to find an inventor who has not thought his invention was the best thing since sliced bread,” said Wise, a patent attorney for 30 years and a former patent examiner. “But it’s more difficult than people may think, and there are a lot of factors that play into it.” When that idea comes to you, experts say don’t wait - and don’t tell anyone. “You never, never should tell anybody about your invention, even your mother, before talking with a patent attorney,” Wise said. While the grace period with the patent office currently stands that the inventor hasn’t revealed it more than a year after coming up with the idea, there is legislation in the works that would void an inventor’s patent rights the moment he or she discloses the idea to anyone. Wise said if the invention is worth pursuing, why wait? - Source12/20/07 - Vertical Farming: Apple Store Meets Greenhouse Meets Skyscraper
For more than a decade, Columbia University professor Dickson Despommier has argued that agriculture needs to expand upwards, not outwards. Forget the noble farmer in his fields; enter the 30-story greenhouse running on solar energy and urban wastewater, churning out food year-round. Once seen as an amusing novelty, Despommier's vertical farms went mainstream in 2007, garnering widespread press attention and investor interest. No wonder: by 2050, Earth's population will swell to 9 billion people. Feeding them -- especially if they demand protein-rich Western diets -- will require a doubling, even a tripling of global food supplies. - Source
12/20/07 - E.P.A. Says 17 States Can’t Set Emission Rules
The E.P.A. administrator, Stephen L. Johnson, said the proposed California rules were pre-empted by federal authority and made moot by the energy bill signed into law by President Bush on Wednesday. Mr. Johnson said California had failed to make a compelling case that it needed authority to write its own standards for greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks to help curb global warming. The decision immediately provoked a heated debate over its scientific basis and whether political pressure was applied by the automobile industry to help it escape the proposed California regulations. Officials from the states and numerous environmental groups vowed to sue to overturn the edict. The 17 states - including New York, New Jersey and Connecticut - had waited two years for the Bush administration to issue a ruling on an application to set stricter air quality standards than those adopted by the federal government. The decision, technically known as a Clean Air Act waiver, was the first time California was refused permission to impose its own pollution rules; the federal government had previously granted the state more than 50 waivers. - Source12/20/07 - Formal Apology Form
(via j-walkblog.com) - Source 12/20/07 - Proxz.com
Proxz.com was created to supply the general public with free proxy servers. We do this because proxy servers are very useful tools. They can be used for but not limited to hiding your IP, secure web surfing, faster connection response, and firewall bypassing. A proxy server does not insure that your completely anonymous, but it is definitely a step in the right direction. Proxz.com is updated with fresh proxies daily from our extensive database, and are sent via RSS feed. Our proxies are tested for quality before being placed in our proxy lists. We offer a wide range of different types of proxy servers, below is a list of the types and what they do. - Source12/20/07 - Chicago police ask you to report people using maps or taking notes in public
The London police force clearly has the graphic-design edge , but the Chicago Police Department matches if not outshines the British bobbies for the ardor and toxic nuttiness with which it propagates anti-terrorist paranoia. Click on the image to read which categories of people are considered suspects now. You might want to duct-tape your jaw to your face first (be careful not to do this in public; I'm sure the cops consider duct tape highly fishy too). Like the London example, this flyer is genuine. You can find it on the City of Chicago's website here. If terrorists do their dirty work by spreading, well, terror, what should we call public servants who aggressively promote fear and unhinged suspicions by telling the public to report note takers, binoculars users, camera enthusiasts, map owners, and motorists who time traffic lights? (via boingboing.net) - Source12/20/07 - Psychic gramophone of 1932
Major Raymond Phillips, O.M.E., late member of the Inter-Allied Commission of Control, claims to have evolved apparatus which will cause a gramaphone or kettle to function entirely by will power. Major Phillips explains that the human body acts as an earth and the constant capacity is maintained within three yards of the apparatus. A momentary pause in the flow to earth through the body-produced entirely by mind concentration-is followed by an upward surge of sufficient intensity to cause a series of relays to operate. - Source
12/20/07 - How Spicey is Your IT Dept
Spiceworks.. The FREE Helpdesk,IT Assset, Software Inventory, Network Monitoring and Troubleshooting Tool. Setup takes about 5 mins. Scan your network (i prefer to do this overnight) and check out the reports. Ever want to find out exactly how many machines: Have P2P software on them, Who doesn't have Anti-virus software or is out of date, Whose machine doesn't install the windows updates automatically, Have that annoying old version of the NIC driver that craps out under load and soo much more. These are just a couple of examples of what i did with Spiceworks. The helpdesk ticket system is helping my IT people keep track of nagging issues and helping those that are out of the know stay in the know. Try it out.. its Free!! - Source12/20/07 - The dangers of living in a zero-sum world economy
We live in a positive-sum world economy and have done so for about two centuries. This, I believe, is why democracy has become a political norm, empires have largely vanished, legal slavery and serfdom have disappeared and measures of well-being have risen almost everywhere. What then do I mean by a positive-sum economy? It is one in which everybody can become better off. It is one in which real incomes per head are able to rise indefinitely. How long might such a world last, and what might happen if it ends? The debate on the connected issues of climate change and energy security raises these absolutely central questions. - Source12/20/07 - New phone device allows you to 'speak' through your ear
The device -- named "e-Mimi-kun" (good ear boy) -- doubles as an earphone and a microphone by detecting air vibrations inside the ear, developer NS-ELEX Co. said. The earpiece and an accompanying device can be connected to a mobile phone, or wirelessly to a Bluetooth handset, so that users no longer have to cover their mouths when speaking in a loud environment, the company said. Exterior noise is reduced six-fold by the earpiece, it said, while a chip developed by Sanyo Electric for the accompanying device reduces sound levels ten-fold, it added. - Source
12/20/07 - Funniest 404 page
Face it, this page is probably a lot more interesting that what you were looking for in the first place. - Source12/18/07 - Impossibility of Perpetual Motion Shown at Chicago Fair - Sept. 1934
A “BALL power wheel” which is supposed to turn continuously because it is always unbalanced is just one of the many interesting “perpetual motion” models on exhibit in the Hall of Science of A Century of Progress. In spite of the fact that centuries of effort have failed to produce a single working perpetual motion machine, inventors continue wasting time and money on the idea. This exhibit is intended to show in a convincing manner just why it is impossible to construct such a device. Though many of the models run a surprisingly long time, friction eventually stops every one. - Source
12/18/07 - ‘Combinatorial’ Approach Squashes Software Bugs Faster, Cheaper
A team of computer scientists and mathematicians from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Texas, Arlington is developing an open-source tool that catches programming errors by using an emerging approach called “combinatorial testing.” - Source12/18/07 - Autophagy - Aging Gracefully Requires Taking Out the Trash
Suppressing a cellular cleanup-mechanism known as autophagy can accelerate the accumulation of protein aggregates that leads to neural degeneration. In an upcoming issue of Autophagy, scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies report for the first time that the opposite is true as well: Boosting autophagy in the nervous system of fruit flies prevented the age-dependent accumulation of cellular damage in neurons and promoted longevity. - Source12/18/07 - Spy planes to recharge by clinging to power lines
The AFRL is developing an electric motor-powered micro air vehicle (MAV) that can "harvest" energy when needed by attaching itself to a power line. It could even temporarily change its shape to look more like innocuous piece of trash hanging from the cable. AFRL's initial aim is to work out how to make a MAV flying at 74 kilometres per hour latch onto a power line without destroying itself or the line. In addition, so as not to arouse suspicion, AFRL says the spy plane will need to collapse its wings and hang limply on the cable like a piece of wind-blown detritus. Much of the "morphing" technology to perform this has already been developed by DARPA, the Pentagon's research division. Technologies developed in that program include carbon composite "sliding skins", which allow fuselages to change shape, and telescopic wings that allow lift to be boosted in seconds by boosting a wing's surface area. - Source12/18/07 - Night Into Day - Feb. 1947
A NEW radiance may soon pour-down from the night sky, dispelling the darkness and changing the life of mankind in the future. This light, the brilliant glow of activated gases in the Ionosphere, is now a definite scientific possibility. Professor Etienne Vassy, Maitre de Conference of the Faculty of Sciences, Sorbonne University, Paris, has set imaginations soaring with his new theory. He proposes to shoot a power ray 50 miles into the air, up into the thin gases of the Ionosphere, activating these gases and causing them to glow with a neon-like light. An artist’s conception of this effect upon the business section of New York City is shown in the accompanying photograph. In this island of light, people could work without artificial illumination. - Source12/18/07 - 15 Weird Gadgets
Here are some weird gadgets that were born as the result of the wildest imagination by their inventors. Here are the top 15 weird gadgets that you never thought existed. - Source12/18/07 - Norway's carbon emissions rose 80 percent despite Kyoto
Just as Norwegian delegates to the UN's conference on climate change started heading home from Bali, came news that Norway's own carbon emissions rose 80 percent from 1990 to 2004. Statoil's refinery at Mongstad is the biggest contributor. Some politicians found themselves in embarrassing spots as well. Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg had to admit to newspaper Dagsavisen that he still uses an old-fashioned and emission-generating oil heater in his home, even though his own government is strongly encouraging Norwegian households to replace such heating systems. - Source12/18/07 - Britons 'healthier in medieval times'
People in medieval times were healthier than modern Britons because they did not suffer from cholesterol related diseases, it has been claimed. While those living in the Roman and Tudor periods faced hazards such as the "pox and plague", it seems that their daily diet lacked foods which could lead to heart disease. Excessive levels of cholesterol were non-existent in Roman and medieval times. It is a current phenomenon and a direct result of modern excess and a lack of exercise. Research by Lloydspharmacy, the chemist chain, found that the daily diet consumed by Britons in the Roman period of fruit, fish, whole grains, vegetables and olive oil washed down with red wine amounted to approximately 120g of fat, 80g of protein and 600g of carbohydrates. Two thousand years later the average British diet is higher in fat, lower in fruit and vegetables and higher in refined sugar, all of which have contributed to the rise in obesity-related disease and cholesterol. But the average lifespan in medieval times was about half of what it is now because many died in childbirth or from infections. - Source12/18/07 - Get ready for traffic jams on the Moon
It might be time to consider traffic lights on the moon. In the past week, governments, space agencies, and even a company from the Isle of Man announced plans to land on the moon. But it won't just be the big players adding to the traffic jam. Last week a private company called Odyssey Moon - based on the Isle of Man - became the first entrant in the Google Lunar X prize. The contest, announced in September, offers $20 million to the first privately funded mission to land a probe on the moon before 2012 and send back pictures. - Source
12/18/07 - Convert Videos for Phones, iPods and More with WinFF
Windows and Linux: Free and open source application WinFF is a graphical front end for the command line tool FFMpeg, a veritable Swiss Army knife of mutimedia file conversion. Load an audio or video file into WinFF, select from a wide variety of output formats-including Flash files, phone-friendly ringtones and DVD templates-and hit convert. Users of Ubuntu and some other Linux distros may have to enable their FFMpeg tool to use additional codecs, which the author describes at his site. WinFF is a free download for all Windows systems and Linux distributions, with pre-compiled Ubuntu/Debian and Red Hat packages available at the link. - Source12/18/07 - Scitopia
In the world of online scientific research, Web giants Google and Wikipedia may not be ideal places to begin your search. Students, particularly in America, are discovering Scitopia, a new search engine that gathers its information from more than three million scholarly and government documents as well as European, Japanese and U.S. patent offices. - Source12/18/07 - Judge Judy not real?
We were operating under the misunderstanding that Judge Judy was a broadcast of an actual small claims court somewhere, but then our legal beagle intern Alex informed us that it's really just arbitration dressed up to look like small claims court. The power the judge has over the parties is granted by the contract of adhesion they sign to appear. If the defendant loses, the tv product team pays the plaintiff the judgment fee. If the judge finds for the defendant, both parties receive an appearance fee. The judges are not bound by real rules of procedure, evidence, or even behavior. Since it's a contract of adhesion, a decision can only really be successfully appealed if the decision falls outside the scope of what's in the contract. - Source
12/18/07 - 10 Things Christians and Atheists Can (And Must) Agree On
The war that's coming between the fundamentalist Christians and the hard-core Atheists probably won't be the most violent of the holy wars. But it has the potential to be the most annoying. We'll, I'm going to try to stop it. - Source12/16/07 - Signs of the Future
IT'S the year 2040 and Ray Hammond is getting advice from his software assistant Maria. Located in an implant just behind his left ear, Maria has a direct connection with Mr Hammond's brain. Linked with Google and other search engines, Maria is able to filter, search and speak softly to Mr Hammond, as quietly and as transparently as if she were his own thoughts. Maria is the product of one of the six key drivers of change, something he calls "accelerating exponential technology" - "I use Google a metaphor for an emerging intelligence. Every single day that I use Google, and I use it constantly, I notice that it's getting a little bit more capable at understanding what I mean when I don't say precisely what I mean. "Now, if brainpower in the computer is doubling every 12 months and Google is gathering every single minute of every day the intentions of all the humans in the planet, imagine where that might lead in 10 years. And if we accept that Moore's law (that the number of transistors on a chip should double every 18 months to two years) will continue, somewhere between the years 2020 to 2035, artificial intelligence will equal human intelligence and by definition, it will then double it." The result, he says, will be a rupture in human evolution. "We are effectively inventing a new species. So where does that leave us then? In control." - Source
12/16/07 - Auto Mileage Standards Raised to 35 mpg
"The Senate just passed a bill that will increase auto mileage standards for the first time in three decades. The auto industry's fleet of new cars, sport utility vehicles, pickup trucks and vans will have to average 35 mpg by 2020, a significant increase over the 2008 requirement of 27.5 mpg average. For consumers, the legislation will mean that over the next dozen years auto companies will likely build more diesel-powered SUVs and gas-electric hybrid cars as well as vehicles that can run on 85 percent ethanol. Automakers had vehemently opposed legislation in June that contained the same mileage requirements and Fortune magazine reported that American automakers were starting the miles-per-gallon race far behind Japan and that the new standards could doom US automakers. At the time, Chrysler officially put the cost of meeting the proposed rules at $6,700 per vehicle. The White House announced the President will sign the bill if it comes to his desk." / (They should have made it 50mpg instead of just 35. - JWD) - Source12/16/07 - Geldof blasts 'Mickey Mouse' energy
The Irish former rock star, known for his campaigning on poverty relief in Africa, was writing on a blog set up by carmaker Lexus to promote hybrid road vehicles. "The reality is that we need to do much more than change the type of car we drive to make an impact on climate change. In the UK, we'll soon have to scramble for more nuclear power," Geldof wrote. "On this issue, I don't care what anyone says: we're going to go with it, big-time. We may mess around with wind and waves and other renewable energy sources, trying to make them sustainable, but they're not. They're Mickey Mouse," he said. - Source
12/16/07 - Faster Shutdowns Using the Run Dialog
Whenever I tried to shutdown my work laptop it would take almost five minutes. Five minutes! Since I work in a completely locked-down environment I couldn't look to any third party applications for help. Entering the following shutdown command in the run dialog speeds up my shutdown time dramatically. Open Run and type: shutdown -f -t 0 / The command Eric uses immediately forces any open applications to close without warning prior to Windows shutting down. (via lifehacker.com) - Source12/16/07 - Hear Voices? It May Be an Ad
New advertising technology manufactured by Holosonic transmits an "audio spotlight" from a rooftop speaker so that the sound is contained within your cranium. The technology, ideal for museums and libraries or environments that require a quiet atmosphere for isolated audio slideshows, has rarely been used on such a scale before. For random passersby and residents who have to walk unwittingly through the area where the voice will penetrate their inner peace, it's another story. Ms. Wilson, a New York-based stylist, said she expected the voice inside her head to be some type of creative project but could see how others might perceive it differently, particularly on a late-night stroll home. "I might be a little freaked out, and I wouldn't necessarily think it's coming from that billboard," she said. - Source12/16/07 - Living bioterror detector
The trouble with biochemical weapons detectors is that they generate an unacceptable number of false positives, says Benjamin Shapiro, an aerospace engineer at the University of Maryland, US. The system that Shapiro and colleagues have come up with uses cells that die when exposed to a particular pathogen, which provides the early warning. The cells are also engineered to produce a signal, such as fluorescence, when attacked. They are stored on a chip that keeps them alive and that also monitors the light they produce. The cells can be exposed to pathogens in the air via a semi-permeable membrane. When the cells die and emit light, the system should know within minutes that pathogens are present - just like the canaries that were once used to warn miners of a build-up of toxic gas. - Source12/16/07 - Kidney Cell Battery
One of the potentially useful things that a living cell can do is pump ions across its membrane. Simon Levinson, a biophysicist at the University of Colorado Medical School in Denver, US, says this generates a potential difference and so could be exploited to make a biobattery. Levinson believes that kidney cells, which are particularly good at transporting ions, could be well suited to making a miniature battery. This would be formed by stacking up large numbers of cell layers to boost the voltage and current they can produce. He suggests that such biobatteries might be ideal for powering devices inserted in the body, such as insulin pumps or pacemakers. - Source
12/16/07 - Mobile Remote Eyes for Security
A new invention that let’s you keep an eye on your valuables when you are far from home could give homeowners the peace of mind they have been craving. The Smart Eyes robot - an off-the-shelf remote control rally car that has a cellphone-capable phone video mounted on its roof. The modified rally car is Guan’s honours engineering project. The vehicle can be operated via cellphone, feeding footage to a video-capable cellphone anywhere in the world. Guan says he had always planned to manufacture a surveillance product and after he realised there were no products on the market that allowed the camera to move, he knew what he wanted to create. Guan designed and built the upgraded remote control car, putting additional technology “on top” and getting the system working in a matter of weeks. - Source12/16/07 - Watch predicts your Death
U.S. patent 5031161, the Life Expectancy Timepiece. The watch tackles a complex problem the same way those generic email questionnaires your friends send you do - by using the same actuarial tables insurance companies use to determine your life insurance premiums. "This actuarial table data is based on a number of factors, such as overall health of the individual, whether a person smokes cigarettes, consumes excessive alcohol, and genetic factors such as family histories of known diseases and recorded life spans." So, just like the clock that activates the New Year's Eve ball in Times Square every year, this watch is always in countdown mode! Unlike a traditional watch that will run, theoretically, forever, the Life Expectancy Timepiece has an end time or hard stop. Happy "another year down and only so many left to go" goner boy! - Source
12/16/07 - Painless Bubble Injections
Sixth-grader inventor James Gentry is confident and curious. Cradled in his hands is another
